PATTAYA, 10 April 2009: Eight demonstrators broke through the security cordon at the venue of the 14th Asean Summit in an attempt to hand over a petition to demand the ouster of Thai prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

They demanded to see a representative from a foreign delegation to hand over the petition.

Initial indications are that they asked for Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is the Deputy Chair of Asean.

The demonstrators eventually handed over a the petition to P Balakumar of the Asean secretariat and asked him to distribute it to theleaders attending the summit.

Despite the security threat posed by the protesters, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, who is in charge of security, told a news conference at the Pattaya Exhibition and Convention Hall earlier today that the summit would proceed as planned. — Bernama